Cramps in les catacombs, two cows in the garage

Ohio's representing in town this month, and lots more...

Stream the Crawler podcast for June 12-18! Barnaby spins the column with music clips, extra tips, and more!

Thursday 12From Bordeaux, France, pushing needles into the red with cracking guitars, electro-rock garage-punks the Magnetix (Looch Vibrato on guitar, Aggy Sonora on drums) bring what they dub “rock monster” to Bar Pink. The pair of high-flying psychonauts soundtrack the seedier side of gay Paris. Makes me think of those skull-and-bone-lined tombs under the streets, les catacombs. They’re on Reno city’s Slovenly Recordings (Stalins of Sound) whose one-sheet on the dark-rock duo comps “Davie Allen and the Arrows starting static with Cramps in a sound clash from Pluto — dig?” Oui oui! Switch on La Drogue Electrique, but make sure your circuit breakers are fully operational. These beats throb — ooh la la.... Prefer a more scientific approach to your metal music, few better than Chicago-based instru-metal act Pelican, which lands at Casbah behind last year’s Southern Lord set Forever Becoming, their first as a four-piece, which gives the group a “newfound sense of clarity,” according to Pelican guitarist Trevor de Brauw. Like-minded Brooklynites Tombs and Mike Gallagher’s (ISIS) experimental solo show Mustard Gas & Roses fill this heady triple bill.... Solana Beach bar Belly Up stages SanFran country-punk band Duo de Twang, which features Primus bassist/singer Les Claypool playing bass and singing ’longside M.I.R.V. guitarist Bryan Kehoe. The pair dropped their debut this year, Four Foot Shack, a record stacked with some unwieldy covers as country ditties — “Stayin’ Alive,” anyone? How about Alice in Chains’ “Man in the Box”? It’s also got some re-fried Primus takes such as “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.” Reformed Whores up first.

From France, garage-punk duo Magnetix set up at Bar Pink on Thursday night!

Friday 13That purveyor of power-pop Paul Collins (though he prefers “king of power pop”) and this year’s version of the Beat play Til-Two Friday night. Collins was in the Nerves with the Plimsouls’ Peter Case, with whom he wrote/recorded some grade-A classics, including “Hanging on the Telephone” and “Walking Out on Love.” Collins is a generous performer; i.e., e.g., f.y.i., you’ll get it all! With locals Javier Escovedo (the Zeros), Poontang Clam, and My Revenge (featuring Hector Penalosa of the Zeros) opening the show, this’d be the gig to see Friday night.... Miss the door at Til-Two, Columbus, Ohio’s stomp ’n’ roll trio Two Cow Garage plays the Ken with Caskitt and Squarecrow. TCG’s The Death of the Self Preservation Society is a classic-rock-gone-punk platter with many hidden treasures. Watch ’em live and then pick it up from the merch guy and start unpeeling that onion. Beneath their barroom-rock attack, there’s some lyrical bite.... SDMA’s Best New Artist nominee for 2013, Flaggs, is back and playing a CD-release thing for God Hates Flaggs at Whistle Stop. The hook-y retro-rockers will unveil “new members & new songs to tantalize your earholes and eyeballs”.... And, oh yeah, it’s Friday the 13th, a good night to get your creep on, as our own organ-grinding dance band Creepy Creeps wheel the big rig into Bar Pink for a night of garage-psych and surf-fright rockers that earned the costumed kooks a Best Live Band trophy at last year’s SDMAs.

The "king of power-pop," Paul Collins, and this year's version of the Beat play Til-Two Friday night!

Saturday 14Ohio is representing in town this week, as lo-fi indie hits Guided by Voices bring this year’s fifth and sixth(!) post-reunion records — Motivational Jumpsuit and Cool Planet — to Belly Up. Dave Good Of Noted show opener Bobby Bare Jr., while contributor Andrew Hamlin interviewed GbV guitarist/missing link Toban Sprout. So my work here is to direct you them for more on this. Boom.... A mess of exits south on the 5: local favorites Burning of Rome and New Kinetics split a bill at Ché Café. Have you gotten your mitts on this year’s Burning disc Year of the Ox? Fun listen if a bit effervescent. I like stuff that sticks to the ribs, but I notice, for what it’s worth, that it’s still spinning in the gf’s car. We’ve got the single, standout track, “God of Small Things,” clipped into this week’s podcast for a tasty taste.... That sepia-toned psych-folk four-piece Midnight Pine plays a CD-release for their new one, Buried, at the Hideout. There’s a bit of Buried called “Hey There” on this week’s podcast. I am always taken by surprise when I hear Shelbi Bennett’s word- and worldwise voice. Those pipes are pure gold, giving Al Howard’s poetics his richest platform yet.... Else: hard-rocking L.A. act Zig Zags weave their way into Soda Bar on the heels of their brand-spanking-new In the Red set...while O.C. stoner-rock quartet Fu Manchu hangs at Casbah with this year’s Gigantoid.